Mower



Mam 2s, 1939. R. D, CLEMSON 2,152,278"

MOWER Filed June 18, 1937 ms A H. my Y @talented @dg idd@ seres MWEB application .lune i8, i937, Serial No. 148,835

3 Claims.

invention relates to lawn mowers.

lawn mowers tor m years prior to my invention have been made to a standard design, consisting essentially oi heavy cast iron wheels, a heavy cast iron ire, a reel consisting oi forged Vspiral bladesriveted to forged or cast spiders. and mounted on a steel shaft, driven through a simple ratchet pinion and ring gear from the ground wheels and a wooden 4handle with strap iron arms secured to the handle at one end and to the trame at the other. Minor variations on this design have been made from time to time, and motor drives have been provided or the handle has been eliminated and the frame med for pulling behind a draft animal or tractor; but in general construction and design there yhas been remarkably little change for more than 25 years.

These mowers as lmown to vthe prior art havewhich maires a cumbersome unit for transporting' from place to place.

These structures have relied largely upon their excessive weight to provide traction to hold them in uniform contact with the ground, and to maintain the relationships oi the parts. Due to this excessive weight and lach ci complete rigidity in frame it is ordinarily not satisfactory to use such a mower for edging in locations where only one wheel can be heldin contact with the ground, since such operation produces a wrenching of the machine which tends to distort the adjustment hetween the shear blades and requires a twisting torque applied to the handle which is dimcult to maintain due to the tendency of the heavy mower mechanism to jump or buch with varying density oi the material being cut and especially when an obstacle is encountered which cannot he out and blocks the rotation of the reel.

Even upon level ground with both wheels in contact with the ground this tendency to jump or buch is noticeable in' all such priormowers and odors a serious obstacle to the production of a satisfactory appearance in a lawn or uneven ground or with uneven density oi plant growth.

Accordingly, ity is an object oi my present invention to provide a mower which will overcome (fifi. deL-2d@ a mower which will be relatively tree from any tendency to jump or buck. I

Another object of the invention is to provide a mower in which adequate traction for driving the mechanism from the wheel is attained-without excessive weight.

In the accompanying drawing I have shown a mower embodying my invention which achieves these objects. Although I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention and described the same in the specication it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this preferred embodiment, but on the contrary it is given only for purposes of illustration in order that others may understand the invention and its operation; and the accompanying description is designed to enable others skilled in the art to apply the invention and embody it in numerous and varied forms, each as may he best adapted to the requirements of any particular problems or condition.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view in vertical section taken on line l-i of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 2 is a top plan view.

The mower shown in these gures comprises broadly a frame lo, a handle il, ground wheels i2, a reel i3, a bed knife id and a ground roller id.

in principle of operation this mower is similar to others known prior to my invention. The ground wheel i' contains an internal ring gear (not shown) whichv meshes with a pinion connected to the end of the shaft 'id oi the reel i3 by means of a ratchet or over-running V'clutch (not shown). id are connected together by the cross member it and also by the shaft le on which the ground roller l5 is rotatably mounted. The bed knife ift and its bach dll upon which it is mounted are The side members il oi the frame $5 rotatably adjustable about a pivotal mounting toV press the cutting edge more or less tightly against the edges of the fly knives l on the reel to form a shear therewith.

The construction is distinguished from any known to the prior art primarily in its design for the elimination of excess weight, in the rigidity of its frame, in the removable mounting of the handle, and in the point of attachment and angle of the handle to the frame.

Excess weight has been eliminated hy the use of light metal castings and of high strength metals in shapes which give great rigidity and strength with relatively small weight and mass. in the example illustrated, the wheels i2, the

side frames I1 and the spiders 22 of the reel, and the bed knife back 2li are all cast of light metal, as for example, an aluminum or zinc die-casting metal. The cross member I 8, the ground roller I5 and the handle I I are all made of tubular steel, giving high strength and rigidity due to the nature of the metal and the tubular shape and with relatively small mass of metal and, therefore, low weight.

The large diameter of the tubular cross member I8 clamped against the side frames I'I gives to the assembled frame great rigidity as compared with mowers as commonly used in the prior art and this rigidity is further reinforced by means of the shaft IB at the opposite end of the frame.

Because of the rigidity thus attained and the other features of the construction by which wrenching and bucking of the frame are avoided, the handle in this preferred example can be made readily removable from the frame by the simple expedient of flattening the tubular stock, of which the handle is made, at the end of the lateral arms 23, piercing the flattened portions with a hole 25 which ts a stud 24 on the frame and then snapping the handle into place, with the studs 24 in the holes 25 in the arms 23, by the resilient bending of the arms 23.

Advantageously the handle is made with the spread of the arms 23, when they are free, slightly greater than the distance between the side frames Il at the bases of the studs 24. Thus when the handle is in place it still exerts a resilient pressure against the side frames helping to hold itself securely in position on the frame and moreover avoiding any rattling between the handle and the frame.

The placing of the studs 24 is important. In

mowers asl commonly made prior to my invention the handle has been connected so that the force applied to the handle is exerted on a line extending in front of the contact of the wheels with the ground and there serves almost entirely to effect forward movement of the mower. Such a construction must rely almost entirely upon excess weight to hold the mower in the desired operative relation with the ground.

In the construction according to my present invention I have made possible the elimination of the excess weight and at the same time have reduced and almost eliminated the tendency of the machine to jump and buck by placing the point of connection between the handle and the frame behind the shaft I5 and sufficiently low so that when the handle is in its operating posi- `tion itscentral plane along which the force is directed passes behind the reel shaft and, in the preferred embodiment, through or advantageously behind the points of contact between the wheels I2 and the ground.

The considerations which control the novel placing of the handle in my' mower may best be understood by considering the mowerrst with its wheels blocked against forward movement and secondly with its reel blocked against rotation. 'I'he frame, being pivotally connected both to the ground wheels I2 and to the ground roller I5, may turn about either as a fulcrum; and force 4applied along the handle, therefore, exerts a turning moment about each tending to press the other toward the ground. The relative magnitude of these moments depends upon the respective distances from the pivots of the wheels and roller respectively of the planevin which force is applied along the handle to the mower. To

increase the downward pressure on the wheels the handle should be moved away from the ground roller to lengthen the moment arm from the roller; to increase the downward pressure on the roller, conversely the spacing of the handle from the wheel must be increased.

This, however, considers the wheels and roller as anchored. When the mower is in use the forward component of the force on the handle acting against the ground exerts a turning moment on the wheel. If the reel were to run perfectly free, thiswould have no effect on the pressure of the wheels against the ground, and probably for this reason, the actual effect of this turning moment has never been properly utilized in prior mower designs.

To the extent that the reel is not free to turn, but is resisted by the grass or other material engaged between the fly knives and bed knife, this turning moment is transmitted to the frame. According to the invention this effect is utilized to increase the traction of the wheels.

In the operation of the mower force is applied through the handle to the yframe at an angle which may be resolved into a component perpendicular to the radius of the ground roller (which produces a direct vdownward pressure on the wheel by the turning moment around `the roller) and a second component parallel to the ground (which tends to produce forward motion). The latter, however, due to the traction of the wheel produces a turning moment on the wheel; and this as already stated is transmitted to the frame to the extent that rotation of the reel is resisted. When the handle is located as in the prior art, this moment tends to lift the frame and the roller off the ground in what I have referred to as bucking. If, however, the handle is properly placed according to the present invention, the force tending to lift the frame due to this turning moment is always less than the component of the force on the handle which exerts an opposite turning moment upon the frame; therefore, the frame cannot buck and the force instead is smoothly applied against the handle stimulating a greater force by the operator with the result of increasing the pressure of |the wheels against the ground, i. e., the traction.

Thus one avoids the need for excess weight to give traction and the effective traction is automatically adjusted to the requirements of the cut.

The angle of attack of the handle is important because it determines both the component of the applied force which acts directly to press down the ground wheels and the turning moment exerted on the frame in opposition to that exerted by the reaction to the reel drive.

The placing of the point of attachment of the handle according to the invention requires that the moment of force applied to the handle shall be at least equal to the moment of the reaction force applied to the frame from the wheels when the reel is blocked.

Due to the angle between the handle and the frame and the positioning of the studs 24 the force exerted on the handle serves to hold both the ground wheels I2 and the ground roller I5 against the ground and in the event that the reel becomes blocked by some obstacle which it cannot cut the tractive effort and inertia reacts directly against the handle instead oi' causing `the ground wheel and bed knife to jump as in ily knives mounted on said frame between said the mowers heretofore in use and in this way also any tendency of the mower to 1ump is further reduced, l

All of this is particularly important with the removable handle and in case the machine is being operated on one wheel for edge trimming, etc., because under such circumstances a direct reaction against the handle can be absorbed without. wrenching the handle free from the frame, whereas, with the twisting and jumping tendencyof the older machines a removable handle under the vcircumstances would be wrenched off, thus would be impracticable.

The handle as shown in the drawing isconstructed oi welded steel tubes and thus forms an integral one-piece unit. This' is important in the detachable construction because it eliminates al1 danger, of any parts becoming loose and the handle thus becoming detached from the machine in operation. It is particularly important also ln the operation of the machine, as already described, 'on one wheel for edge trim. ming because it eliminates the tendency for any vpart of the handle to become wrenchedA loose .from or distorted with relation to one another as frequently occurs in the operation of the older machines.

The form of the handle shown and the pivotal mounting on the mower apart from the angular relationship as herein claimed is more particularly set forth and claimed in my copending application, Serial No..256,379, liled February 14,v

It will thus be seen that I have combined in the construction shown, each of which is desirable in itself, but would also be objectionable in other ways were it notl for the presence of the others, which in the combination overcome these inherent objections. The combination,

therefore, vis superior in every respect to the machines known prior to my invention.

What I claim is:

l. In combination with a lawn mower having a substantially rigid frame, a Wheel on each side of said'frame making tractive contact with the ground, a rotary cutting reel' comprising spiral 2. In combination with a lawn mower having a substantially rigid frame, a wheel on each side of said frame making. tractive contact with the ground, a rotary cutting reel comprising spiral fly knives mounted on said lframe' between lsaid whee1s,'means operatively connecting said reel and said wheels to cause rotation of said reel when said wheels are rotated, av handle'attached to said frame and a bed knife positioned to make a `shearing contact with said ily knives when Vsaidl reel is rotated; means for pivotally attaching said handle to each side of theframe at a point thereon approximately valong the plane joining the contact of the wheels with the ground and the upper end of the handle when in normal operative position and to the rear of the axle o'f said reel. I- 4 3. In combination with a lawn 4mower having a light metal substantially rigid frame, a wheel on each side of said frame-making tractive contact with the ground, a rotary cutting reelv comprising spiral .y knives about a shaft mounted for rotation on said frame between said wheels, means operatively connecting said reel and said wheels to cause rotation of said reel when said wheels are rotated, a handle attached to said frame and a bed knife positioned to make shearv ing contact with said fly knives when said reel is rotated; means for pivotally attaching-said handle toeach side ofthe frame at a point to the rear of a plane connecting the upper end of the handle when in .normal operative position and the points of contact of the wheel with the ground and to the rear of the axle oiA said reel.

RICHARD D. CLEMSON.

'DESCLEMR 2,l52,278.-\Rchard D. Clemson, Middletown, N. Y. MoWER. Patent dated March 28, 1939. Disclaimer filed February 26, 1941, by the assignee, Clemson Bros., Inc.

Hereby disclaims from the scope of claim l- All mowers in which the plane 'oining the' upper end of the handle, Where propelling force is applied thereto and t e line of contact of the wheels withthe ground, when the handle' is in normal operating position, passes 1n front of theaxis of pivotal attachment of the handle to the frame.

[Qfct'al Gazette, March 25, 1941.

Disclaimer 2,152,278.-Riohard D. Clemson, Middletown, N. Y. MOWER. Patent dated Mar. 28, 1939. Disclaimer filed Apr. 26, 1949, by the assignee, Clemson Bros., Ina Hereby enters this disclaimer to claims 1 and 2 of said patent.

[Ocial Gazette May 81, 1.949.]- 

